BEIRUT: Lebanon marked three years since one of history’s biggest non-nuclear explosions rocked Beirut with hundreds of protesters marching alongside victims’ families on Friday to demand long-awaited justice.

Nobody has been held to account for the tragedy as political and legal pressures impede the investigation.

On August 4, 2020, the massive blast at Beirut port destroyed swathes of the Lebanese capital, killing more than 220 people and injuring at least 6,500.

Authorities said the disaster was triggered by a fire in a warehouse where a vast stockpile of ammonium nitrate fertiliser had been haphazardly stored for years.

Three years on, the probe is virtually at a standstill, leaving survivors still yearning for answers.

Protesters, many of them wearing black and carrying photographs of the victims, marched towards the port shouting slogans including: “We will not forget”.

Some protesters waved a Lebanese flag covered in blood-like red paint while others carried an enormous flag covered in a written pledge to keep fighting for justice.

“The blast investigation is hampered by the political elites and certain judges who are on their side,” said lawyer Cecile Roukoz, who lost her brother.

She said that after three years, the international community needed to take action. “Please, it’s time to act.” The blast struck amid an economic collapse which the World Bank has dubbed one of the worst in recent history and which is widely blamed on a governing elite accused of corruption and mismanagement.

Published in Dawn, Aug 5th, 2023